Shadowed Sun
by Quill of Life
Summary: Hiding behind a shadow of failure to protect herself, she felt safe, but then she had to wonder what it was like to shine like the sun.
1. Chapter 1

The dark shadow drifted between buildings, cloth hiding the face and hair, only showing a pair of bright blue eyes. This night the shadow was returning to the favored hunting ground, not the usual hunting grounds of wild animals, where meat and wild plants could be gathered, or the hunting grounds of thieves, where riches could be plucked from the unwary. No, the favored hunting ground of this dark shadow was dumpsters, particularly those belonging to ninja clans, and one clan in particular.

It was a small clan, in fact as far as the shadow could tell, it only consisted of an old man, but that wasn't a concern, the old man had been throwing out useful things once a week for as long as the shadow could remember. Food was common, it gave the impression that the old man was cooking for two, probably having lost his wife at some point, and never really gotten out of the habit of cooking for both. Then other times it was scrolls on chakra theory, on language, on world history, on all these random things.

Landing softly behind the compound, the shadow opened the dumpster to see what was in it this night. It wasn't disappointing, and a smile bloomed behind the cloth covering the face. The old man had made beef stew for dinner, a much too large portion. The shadow felt terrible for the old man, swearing that one day, they would have dinner together.

Picking out the food, the shadow spotted a scroll underneath. Adding the scroll to the backpack along with the food, the shadow slipped away into the night. That old man always did throw out the most interesting things, and shadow was certain, this scroll would be no different.

* * *

From within the shadows an old man smiled to himself. He had wanted to train the Jinchuriki, but Hiruzen had denied him, implied that the kid would have ended up in root, which really was the dumbest idea ever. They had both known Mito-sama well, and both knew very well that jinchuriki seals ran on willpower, a training regimen designed to dampen emotion? It would be a disaster in the making, and he'd want no part in that, thank you very much.

Still, he had kept an eye on the container, and was both horrified and enraged at what he saw. Complete neglect, the earliest years in the orphanage were not conductive to loyalty, in fact he wouldn't be surprised if the child ended up hating everything. So he took matters into his own hands, again, it was something he had gotten used to doing over the years. This time he just started swapping the staff at the orphanage for some of his own agents, making sure the Jinchuriki got at least a semblance of an education.

Even then, there were limits, and the matron had kicked out the child at the age of five, probably because the education was working and now the child didn't need help with most basic of things. Really, it might have been his fault, had he not stepped in, the container wouldn't even be able walk properly, let alone read and write. One way or the other, this had led to the current situation, the child was going through dumpsters for books, tools, and food. At least here he could make certain that a proper education came along, by simply leaving textbooks in his own dumpster, along with nutritious food.


	2. Chapter 2

Slipping into the darkened apartment, the shadow slipped out of the cloth coverings to reveal a cute face, with short blonde hair, a slight tan whisker-like marking on the cheeks. Removing the rest of the dark clothing revealed a well-trained body, and budding feminine curves. After storing the food in her fridge, the young girl took a quick shower, and slipped into bed.

"You're late Naruto!" The young girl, dressed in a large orange windbreaker and orange coveralls, just poked her tongue out at the teacher. It wasn't like she was learning anything at the academy anyway, at best the teachers would ignore her, and at worst, they tried to sabotage her. "Sorry Iruka-sensei, I overslept."

"See to it that you don't in the future, now take your seat." With that she had been dismissed, and Naruto took a seat near the back. It hadn't been a total lie that she had overslept, the lie part had been her not mentioning that it was on purpose, as usual. Her night raids on the dumpsters had her up until three in the morning, and so she set her alarm clock for a reasonable ten.

The history lesson moved on, and Naruto could only sigh, she already knew the material, she knew what was being talked about, and she knew far more details about it than the teacher probably did. In the beginning she had wanted to just do well, most of the ninja didn't bother her, and so she had thought that the academy teachers would be the same. They weren't, they were worse, just randomly throwing her out of class when they were about to cover something vital, not grading her papers and just giving her a zero, punishing her for any disturbance in class.

In the end, Naruto had taken on the guise of the class clown, it got her some attention, an acquaintance with the other 'losers' of the class, and most of all, she could easily hide her actual skill level. A skill level that had grown tremendously after finding that old man's dumpster. He really did throw away the most interesting books, probably slowly going through his belongings and throwing out anything that wasn't useful anymore.

The thought sent her right back to the scroll she had just recently acquired, it was safely locked away in her small hidden closet, which she had made when she read about such things in one of her books, that again the old man had thrown away, and protected by some fairly powerful, as far as she could tell, fuinjutsu, which again was courtesy of the old man. She really had to thank him one of these days, he had singlehandedly provided her with an excellent education. Once she had done some missions, she would be able to invite him out for a dinner or something.

"Quit daydreaming Naruto." A chakra enhanced piece of chalk hit her in the face, and for a brief second she tensed up, before relaxing her posture, giving the image of a slacker. "Sorry Iruka-sensei."

She didn't dislike the man, he was at least capable of treating her with some professional courtesy, even if he hated what she represented, and was wary of her. Giving slightly more focus to the lesson, Naruto heard they were on the events leading up to the third shinobi world war. An utterly boring topic in her mind, it wasn't that hard, Suna was smarting over the beating Iwa had given them near the end of the war, and the beating Konoha had given them near the beginning of the same war, Kumo wanted more bloodlines, Kiri wanted instability on the mainland, Iwa wanted payback, and Konoha was needed to show everyone who was boss.

"Naruto! Pay attention!" She looked up to see an annoyed Iruka, and nearly just snorted, before putting on her mask. "Sorry Iruka-sensei."

It really was so _fucking_ boring, Naruto returned her head to the desk, and let the lesson flow over her, at least graduation was only a few months away. If she could pass. This was the thing that had occupied her mind for the past years, truthfully, the exam was a joke, perform one of the three academy jutsu, she could do a flawless henge and kawarimi with the best of them, _'long live the log, for log provides'_ but she couldn't for the life of her create a bunshin.

Chakra control. From the many chakra theory books and scrolls, she knew that good chakra control was necessary for any jutsu, some were more forgiving than others, say higher ranking elemental ninjutsu, while others needed precision that she would probably never have, say genjutsu and those _'fucking academy bunshin! Argh!'_ just thinking about them caused her to leak small amounts of killing intent, enough so that dog boy became nervous.

"Naruto! Concentrate!" She looked back up, she cursed internally, this was the third time today, she was tired and cranky, her stomach hurt worse than a beating from Maito Gai could, and she really just wanted to punt the fucker in the balls. "Sorry, Iruka-sensei."

By the end of the day, Naruto ran home to check on her latest haul, besides the old man's dumpster, she had gone through the dumpster belonging to the Uchiha and Aburame clans. Though there was only a single Uchiha left, and he rarely if ever did any spring cleaning, she did find a few interesting scrolls in that dumpster, mostly on iryojutsu, fuinjutsu, and genjutsu. Really the brooding prince was weird, he threw away the most random things, though she guessed that in his revenge obsessed mind, those subject wouldn't give him the instantaneous power he craved.

Moron.

"Let's see what the old man wanted me to learn…" It was a nice thought, Naruto liked the idea that the old man was sharing this with her, as a sort of secret mentor, it gave her a feeling of being wanted. "…kage bunshin?"

Reading the scroll, her eyes widened in surprise, there were very detailed warnings, and even the old man had made annotations in the margins with more warnings. "This is one dangerous jutsu, you'd think the guy would burn up this scroll, well then again, the trash is supposed to go to the incinerator plant, not my backpack…"

Putting the scroll back in her hidden closet, Naruto decided to practice the jutsu, it would certainly land her in hot water if anyone ever figured out she had obtained high ranking jutsus while in the academy. Then again, this might also mean that she could finally pass the exam, which had _randomly_ been on the bunshin twice in row so far. With another soft curse, she set about practicing the jutsu for a few hours before she needed to make dinner and practice her chakra control.

It took her three weeks to learn the shadow clones, not that it was a hard jutsu to learn, far from it, she rated it as a 3 on her personal scale, with bunshin as an 11 and the wind release great breakthrough as a 1. While jutsu's aren't learned overnight and she really shouldn't have spent so much time on it, it gave her a viable way to cheat through the exam. Now she just had to figure out how to cheat during the exam, because she was certain that she would be failed if she didn't use the academy bunshin.

Over the following days, she worked out a few plans, though she didn't like them much. Naruto's first plan, which she scrapped quickly, was to fake going through the hand seals of the regular bunshin, then create sealless shadow clones, subvocalizing the jutsu name while shouting the name of the shitty academy clones.

That plan was scrapped within a second. Naruto knew enough about jutsus, to know that it would be impossible for her to master a jutsu to that level in such short time, even if she used the shadow clones to up her training time. Still, she would need to make clones, and if she was stuck faking the bunshin, she would need a shadow clone to make more shadow clones. Clone-ception.

A week later, and the clone-ception idea was still bouncing around in her head, at first Naruto had written off the idea as silly, but it really wasn't. A clone hidden in the room, maybe along with her fucked up henge, and possibly camouflage cloth. There were, sadly, several problems, first of which, the exam room was selected on the day of the exam, amongst six possible classrooms. Then there were chakra detection, cleaning, and the possibility that the examiners might try and sabotage her.

It wasn't until two days before the exam that Naruto finally had the breakthrough in her scheming she was looking for. The class was doing a review of the bunshin, again, and she realized that both jutsus ended on the same seal, tiger. She was already adept enough with the shadow clones to only use one seal, and if she could just modulate her voice enough, or possibly find a way to block sound for the first word, her original plan might be salvaged.

That afternoon, Naruto tested if the plan was viable, slowly performing the first two hand seals of the bunshin, before doing the shadow clones with the tiger seal. _'Kage'_ "Bunshin no Jutsu."

It had taken her until the day of the exam to get it right, and it was slow, she needed immense focus to not flow her chakra as she formed the fake hand seals, and even more focus to only call out part of the jutsu name. Worse Naruto knew she only had one chance of getting it right, and as she was now, she could do it maybe two out of three times at best.

She needed a backup plan. There were two options, one was to make a shadow clone hide in the examination room and make three extra shadow clones along with her own attempt, and the other was to knock out one of the teachers and placing a shadow clone on the panel. The last one though, wasn't going to work, Iruka was out, he would report directly to the hokage after the exams, and she didn't know who else would be present.

The option of hiding a shadow clone was also out, while she could suppress her chakra enough to fool most ninja, Iruka was a sensor, and would easily detect her signature in the room. So the whole idea of a second clone hidden was out as well. So faking it, or trying to do the normal bunshin, those were her options, and she knew the chances of either being a success were low. While her bunshin were getting better, it was still far from good enough, and faking it carried the risk of one of the examiners spotting that something was off about them.

Really, a long shot either way, the ordinary clones would like get her fail, but the shadow clones might land her in hot water, and the old man that had thrown out the scroll, if she was forced to spill. Whatever she chose, it could end disastrously for her. On that topic, time was running out, she looked around the classroom to see that most of the students had already gone in.


	3. Chapter 3

"Uzumaki Naruto." The young girl looked up at Iruka, still undecided on whether to attempt the usual clone or the shadow clone. Naruto left her seat, and followed the one teacher she didn't have a problem with. Cheat or fail. She was still in doubt as she walked down the hallway, not really paying attention. Failure wasn't good, cheating also really wasn't something she wanted to do since it might bring trouble to that old man. Still.

"Don't worry Naruto, you'll do fine." The words took her from her thoughts, and she looked at her teacher, Iruka looked like he believed in her, and she hadn't been tested on her bunshin in three months. He had faith in her, and the long gap since her last failure meant that a success wouldn't be completely unbelievable. Just implausible.

Clearing her mind Naruto entered the exam room, and for the briefest of moments saw something that made her want to win. Mizuki was smirking. Iruka had his back turned, and she was looking ahead, but in the corner of her eye she saw the man. A low growl nearly escaped her throat, she disliked him on principle, not because he tried to sabotage her taijutsu and bukijutsu, but because he did so while putting on a friendly demeanor. She would succeed, and wipe that smug look off his face.

"Okay Naruto, please perform the bunshin no jutsu, making at least three clones." She smiled at Iruka and gave a confident nod. Slowly performing the first two hand seals of the bunshin, Naruto had ample time getting chakra ready as performed the tiger seal for the shadow clones. _'Kage'_ "Bunshin no Jutsu."

Four puffs of smoke revealed a set of three perfect clones, and Naruto breathed a sigh of relief, she already had returning memories of one clone, something had impacted on its shin the moment it had formed. Luckily she had made an extra, because she had been certain Mizuki would try something. "Congratulations Naruto, you pass, I knew you could do it. Come on up and grab a hitae-ate."

"Thanks Iruka-sensei, I really worked my butt off for this jutsu, it was such a pain to get right, and sorry about sleeping in class." The moment that Iruka passed her, the clones vanished, no need for them to stick around. Naruto picked up a forehead protector and tied it around her left arm, it felt appropriate, as she wasn't a fan of most residents in Konoha, but didn't have issue with most ninja. She'd give and arm for Konoha, but not her life, heart, or mind.

"Orientation is Monday next week, and remember to file your ninja registration before the weekend." She was halfway out the door by the time Iruka's voice caught up with her, and Naruto threw a wave and cheer over her shoulder. "Sure Iruka…"

Instead of heading back to class, Naruto jumped out a window into the yard behind the academy, a place devoid of waiting parents, and then ran to her favorite restaurant.

Naruto liked ramen, like really, _really_ liked ramen, to say that Naruto just liked ramen was like saying the Sage of Six Paths did a bit chakra theory, such an understatement that it might as well be a lie. Still, early on in her dumpster diving hunting, she had found books on proper nutrition, and ramen was a definite no-no, too much salt, no vegetables, and very little protein. The salt wasn't so bad, but it was lack of vitamins and minerals, along with the total lack of protein for building muscle mass that turned her off the stuff.

"Teuchi-ojisan, extra-large miso ramen with pork!" Naruto was still half a block away from the little ramen stand when she shouted her order. Which wasn't that strange to her at least, since at her current pace, she would be seated ready with chopsticks in hand, just as Ayame put the bowl on the counter. The fact that she heard Teuchi's reply being shouted, meant this was, for her at least, acceptable behavior.

"Congratulations Naruto-chan!" The sweet, sweet ramen beckoned her, but Ayame was holding it hostage in order to congratulate her on finally passing, and Naruto whined slightly at the sight of her ramen just out of her reach. Leaning over the counter she gave Ayame a hug as she snagged the bowl of ramen behind the older girl. "Thanks Ayame, it was a close call thougfghk."

"Don't talk with your mouth full, you're a girl, you have to eat properly!" The gentle scolding from Ayame only caused her to respond while her mouth was full of noodles, really, after coming here for seven years had they still not learned nothing got between her and ramen. "God, it's like dealing with a toddler! You don't have any manners when it comes to ramen, you're like an addict."

"Ramen addict! Dattebayo!" Naruto nearly coughed as that infernal verbal tic made its presence know, she had worked so damn hard to get rid of it, and her serious ramen addiction, but apparently it was genetically hardwired into her. Ayame cooed at the younger girl, knowing so well that she fought valiantly but futilely against her verbal tic and addiction. "Not funny…"

"Yes it is, now what are going to do as a ninja? Still pretend to be a dunce?" Naruto had only shared this with Ayame and Teuchi, and while Hokage-jiji knew she was hiding her skills, he didn't have a clear picture, as she had said, she wanted to surprise him. It had culminated in a bet, if she was capable of hiding the full extent of her abilities from him until after graduation, he would give her a useful jutsu. "I don't know, maybe, it's just an easy way to do things, people don't expect much from me, and so I won't disappoint, but I also want to be recognized for my abilities."

"Hmm… why not this, you and half of Konoha knows that we make some of the best ramen in the elemental nations, yet you'd never believe it by looking at our shop." Naruto cocked an eyebrow at Ayame, wondering what she was getting at. "Like this, put on some proper ninja wear, boring ninja pants, boring ninja shirt, and don't stand out much, but always perform well enough so no one can doubt your skill."

"I like it, thanks Ayame-nee. Now, more ramen!" The words barely left her mouth before another bowl materialized in front of her. It was like this, the old Hokage found the young girl an hour later, chatting away with the ramen vendors, while stuffing herself with the unholy blasphemy that drained his wallet faster than dear Biwako on shopping trip could. "Naruto-chan, we have a bet to fulfill, shall we do so now?"

"Sure give me five minutes for my stomach to settle, then we can be off." The old Hokage nodded, and sipped the tea that had appeared in front of him, this was one of the perks of being a regular, still, the bill he was handed along with the tea nearly made him weep tears blood. Pulling out his wallet the old Hokage muttered darkly, " _one day, Naruto-chan, one day I will make you pay for a meal, with Kami as my witness, I swear._ "

Following Hokage-jiji, Naruto wondered how much of her skill the old man knew about, and how he would test it. It could be a show and tell, or maybe a spar against a jonin. They continued to walk through the village, and soon reached some of the more secure training grounds, all of these were for jonin and ANBU, and more specifically, they were covered with fuinjutsu that made it very difficult to get in. She had tried, in hopes of scoring some jutsus or at least some ideas.

"This is Training Ground 100, it is reserved for the Hokage's use only. No one can get in or out of here, unless the sitting Hokage allows it." The solemn speech was mostly ignored as Naruto was more interested in the fuinjutsu covering the fence, she could tell that there was a mirage effect in play, and some very deadly barriers, but other than that she wasn't too certain. "Yeah, sure jiji…"

The old Hokage nearly cried at being dismissed like that, but then he noticed what had caught the girl's interest, and smiled. _'Your parents child, truly'_. Naruto watched as the hokage opened the gate before following him inside, the training field was rather barren trees lined the inside of the fence, with a large dirt clearing, probably a square kilometer, there were small ponds between the trees and the dirt field, along with a river, lake, and waterfall at the far end.

"This is it?" Really, for a super-secret Hokage training ground, it wasn't that impressive, large, sure, but not really impressive. "You wound me, Naruto-chan, what had you expected? Fireworks? Cake?"

"…no…" She had, sort of, at least something grand, like a massive stone golem, or perhaps a gargantuan tree, but this was just a field of dirt. Sure it had everything a training ground needed to practice jutsus, particularly the grand kage class jutsus, but it seemed so, pedestrian. "You did, didn't you?"

Naruto nodded, feeling silly. "Don't worry, so did I when I first came here, I was about your age too."

"You? My age? How?" The look of utter disbelief in her eyes that he could ever have been a young man, nearly caused the old hokage to cry. _'Really, am I so old that there are no one around to recall I too have been young, once upon a time…'_ The thought made the old hokage go over his memories, and was surprised to find, that out of all his ninja, only a few could recall him having anything but greying hair, and only fewer still, less than seven, could recall him being a teenager, and out of those only three could recall him being in the academy.

"Yes, once upon a time, I was young and naïve, I know, it's hard to believe, just like believing that Konoha didn't even exist eighty years ago." Naruto was almost awed, she sort of knew, intellectually, that her Hokage-jiji had been around for a long time. It had just never really clicked in her mind until now. Then her prankster side reared, "you remember Konoha being built? Wow…"

"Argh, no! I'm not _that_ old…" Naruto cracked up, it was fun messing with the old man. "Very funny Naruto-chan, see how it feels when you reach my age."

"Now, I have some guesses as to your abilities, but whatever comment I make wouldn't really translate well into your knowledge, even worse, the scales on which abilities are scored have shifted a lot over the years. When I graduated, the core abilities of the 'Rookie of the Year' would be about the level of your primary instructor at the academy, Iruka-kun, at an age of ten, I think you're just around there now."

"Damn." Naruto kicked the dirt as she glowered at the old hokage, really, he was just too good. "Now, do you have something to offset this?"

"You mean other skills that isn't tai-, nin-, gen-, bukijutsu?" Naruto was awed, she knew she was leagues ahead of her peers, but the standard had dropped significantly if graduation at that time had been at chunin level, because seriously while Iruka wasn't really good at anything, he also wasn't bad at anything, and he was way better than anyone else in her class.

"Yes. Those are the primary skills, along with that, academy students, like myself, that were ahead of the curve, took up one other branch to specialize in, for me that was bojutsu." Naruto nodded, she too had a few branches outside the curriculum. "Yeah, while I have no ability with genjutsu, as I said, chakra control, I have a few branches to offset it…"

Naruto smirked as she held out her hand for the aging leader to see. First small sparks of lightning shot between her fingers, which changed into a pebble, the pebble turned into water, then the water caught fire, and finally the fire turned into a small gust of wind. "Basic mastery with all five natures, advanced mastery with earth, and if I'd had the final teachings of wind I would have full mastery of that."

"Very impressive Naruto-chan, in my day only those specializing in ninjutsu would have basic mastery of more than one element, and I had two because I was and still am ninjutsu nerd." Naruto preened under the praise, this was why she had worked so hard, so that her hokage-jiji would be proud. "Any other skills?"

"Oh yeah jiji! Dattebayo!" Stomping the ground in frustration, she turned a glare at the Hokage, just knowing he was laughing on the inside. Giving a fake cough, she moved on. "I know kenjutsu, though my kenjutsu is limited to the kata's. I have a decent grasp of medicine, and though I lack the control for iryojutsu, I can still use both internal and external chakra flow. I also finally mastered the wind chakra flow yesterday. Lastly, I am fairly decent with fuinjutsu."

"That is a very impressive skillset, Naruto-chan. Now where did you learn all of this?" The old Hokage was curious, much of this wasn't readily accessible to academy students anymore, and some of the things had never been so. Though again, the basics were basics for a reason, and with a few observations and some tips, one could build the more advanced techniques without guidance.

"Well, dumpster diving mostly, the teachers at the academy didn't want me in class whenever they were going over the important bits, so I stole some of the textbooks and teaching materials, then I went to the library. However, it like, five and half years ago, I think, that I saw someone throw out a perfectly good jutsu scroll, so I picked it up. Then it sort of just took off, food, clothes, books, weapons, tools, all of it really, the clans are particularly bad, throwing away a whole crate of kunai because one is dented…"

It was sad, for the first time in years, Sarutobi Hiruzen felt all sixty-eight years of his life weighing down on him. Minato and Kushina would tear him apart in the afterlife, if they could get to him, because he was certain that dear Biwako would be first in line. "It shames me that you were forced to do so in order to get an education, though I am also very impressed with how much you have learned. Now I think I know which jutsu to teach you, it might help bring up your taijutsu and kenjutsu to match the rest of your skillset."

"Cool, what is it?" In the back of her mind Naruto had a bad feeling about this. "The Kage Bunshin no Jutsu."

"Ah… sorry Hokage-jiji, already know that one, it was how I passed the academy exam, faked the bunshin by using kage bunshin." The old hokage raised an eyebrow, silently asking her to elaborate. "You know how trash is supposed to be incinerated first… well, it makes people a little careless with jutsu scrolls, might want to warn them about it…"

"Ah-ha… I see, yes that is an issue. Do you know the dangers of the jutsu?" Naruto nodded as a shiver went down her spine, the side effects were horrible. "Death, death-like symptoms, brain death, brain liquefaction, coma, coma-like symptoms, headaches, delusions, recklessness, self-harming behavior. Yeah I know, the scroll mentioned some, and the previous owner added some notes as well."

"Good, then you understand why it should _never_ be used in combat. Well then, I had better teach you the combat variant, The Taju Kage Bunshin no Jutsu." The old hokage smiled as the child cheered, he could see Naruto would indeed be able to take the hat soon, if she still truly wanted it, he wasn't so sure anymore.

* * *

The sun had already set when Naruto had finally been through her skills with the hokage, he had wanted to quiz her extensively on her fuinjutsu knowledge, to make certain there weren't any dangerous holes in her knowledge, as learning that art had more often than not claimed the life of the self-taught. As they walked towards the exit, she finally asked the question that had been bugging her. "Hey, jiji, is it really alright for you to spend so much time with me today, don't you have meetings and such?"

"Of course I do, but I left a kage bunshin to handle those." Naruto nodded in acceptance of the answer, it made sense, why wouldn't he use the jutsu to handle some of the work… "Why'd you never use kage bunshin to speed up paperwork?"

The old hokage stopped dead in his tracks, a look of horror on his face. "Damn."

Naruto looked on as her hokage-jiji cursed up a storm, then set about throwing jutsus left and right, while cursing out all the people around him, the stupidity of ninja, his own lack of wisdom, the idiocy that is Senju Hashirama, and how he would kill Tobirama when finally could get his hands on him in the afterlife. During this, Naruto had backed further and further away from rather volatile kage.

"Sorry you had to see that Naruto-chan… now, as an apology, and because I just found a lot of free time, I think it would be a good idea if we meet here daily, I can teach you a few things, and get back into shape." Naruto smiled at those words, her jiji would teach her, she had read about the man, she knew he was called the Kami no Shinobi, and she couldn't wait to learn from him. "Awesome! Dattebayo!"

As they exited the training ground, an ANBU dropped down in front of the Hokage. "We caught a traitor trying to steal the scroll of seals, as you suspected, the blatantly open position of it was too tempting and an attempt was made."

"So, who is our lucky winner?" Naruto was riveted to the ANBU uniform, she rarely got to see it up close, and she thought it looked so cool, she really wanted her own. Also the mask, those masks were so awesome. "A chunin, Mizuki, no last name, assistant teacher at the academy. He tricked a failed student into taking the scroll, and we followed to see who was behind it."

"Mizuki did? I knew the man was a bastard, but a traitor…" Then it hit her. Had she failed, Mizuki might have tricked her into going after the scroll, she'd have been pretty raw emotionally, and he would be able to abuse that. He might even have tried tricking her anyway, some sort of extra test, it might even have worked, had she not been with Hokage-jiji all day. "Yes, let this be a lesson to you Naruto-chan, traitors come in all forms, and rarely do they stand out as much as this Mizuki."

Naruto nodded. While she was happy that she had been spared this specific ordeal, she did feel sorry for whoever got tricked by Mizuki. The hokage turned his attention back to the ANBU. "Casualties?"

That word made Naruto's stomach knot, she knew intellectually that there would be death, but she really didn't want to hear that one of classmates had died. "Yes, apparently the ruse the traitor used was a make-up test, the academy student tried to learn a jutsu from the scroll, the first one, kage bunshin. Chakra exhaustion, died instantly."

"That is disheartening news, make a memo that the student receive a posthumous advancement to genin and adding the name to the memorial stone." There was a sadness in the old hokage's voice, and Naruto had lost her appetite, the ANBU had never given a name, and out the students in her class only a few had failed, so she could already guess who it was, all but one would be home with parents. "It's Kota, isn't it?"

The ANBU shifted slightly, turning to face Naruto, and the Hokage nodded, giving permission to answer. "Yes, Uzumaki-san. The student in question was Kota."

Naruto set off towards her apartment in a shunshin, not even thinking about how it would look to others at that moment. The boy had been more than willing to torment her in the academy, and even before that, in the orphanage, but even then, she hadn't wished such a fate on him. Closing the door behind her, she fell into bed, still dressed, and quietly cried herself to sleep.

* * *

Morning came all too soon for the young girl, and as Naruto approached the training ground, she was relieved to see her jiji, just like him, she had left a shadow clone to handle the paperwork, in her case getting a picture taken and handing in the ninja registration forms. "Jiji, is it my fault that Kota is dead?"

"No! Naruto, you can't think like that, you had no way to control the actions of the traitor." The old hokage had expected this, the guilt associated with losing a comrade was all too common in ninja. Naruto looked him, feeling her stomach tie itself in knots, even though he had said it wasn't her fault. "But, but if I hadn't cheated, then Mizuki would have gone after me, or if I hadn't spent most of the day here, he might still have targeted me, I could handle cramming a jutsu, I have the chakra for it."

"That isn't your fault, Naruto-chan. You passed the test, you spent time with me, neither of those make this your fault. Did you know Mizuki would do this?" Naruto looked away, she knew this, she knew that it wasn't her fault, but it still hurt, it was still painful. "Naruto-chan, I am sad that you already have to experience this on your graduation, but this will not be the last time that a comrade will die, you are not to blame, and in the future, it will be even worse and you are still not to blame."

"How, jiji? If I'd just…" The old hokage shook his head, and looked her in the eyes. "Your actions did not cause this, Mizuki's actions did. Know this, you can't control everything, and you certainly can't control the actions of others. Losing a comrade hurts, and it is normal to think you could have done something, but that is rarely the case. You didn't know that your teacher was a traitor, so how could you have prepared for this?"

"I don't…" It bothered her, Naruto knew that this was out of her control, that there was nothing she could have done to prevent it. She hadn't known Mizuki was a traitor, or that he would set a student loose on something so dangerous. She sighed, it would be better to train for the rest of the day, the physical exhaustion would allow her to put her thoughts in order. "…can we train?"

"Of course, Naruto-chan." The old hokage led the young girl into the training ground, the gate shutting behind them. Today he would focus on her taijutsu, he decided; Naruto would need the exhaustion.


	4. Chapter 4

Monday came all too soon for Naruto, she had enjoyed the week with her jiji, and between ridicoulous over use of the shadow clones, which her jiji felt was at the level of actual cheating even for a ninja, and a dedicated teacher, her taijutsu and kenjutsu were at a level where it was combat ready. The fact that she had special permission to use training ground 100 at any time was a boon, as it allowed her to train while being unobserved. Still, she couldn't make hundreds of shadow clones, as the old hokage also used the field daily, to get back in shape, a sight to behold.

This was the first day of her new life, Naruto was a ninja now, and with that came a new wardrobe, all the orange had to go, and she had left a mass shadow clone to do the deed, she really didn't want the memories of her orange going up in flames.

To replace the lost orange she had bought sets of standard black ninja pants, black ninja boots, black sleeveless turtle necks, and dark orange flak jackets with black stripes. For a long time Naruto had considered a trench coat like the one she had seen on a few jonin, they both looked awesome, but unless they gave her permission, she wouldn't just copy their look, but she did need something.

Strapping her wakizashi to her back, something she had liberated from the Uchiha clan compound after the fall, she had really gotten quite the haul that night, since then the sword and scabbard had been cleaned of markings, and was now just a simple looking black thing. Even then, it was a chakra conductive sword, something that was bloody expensive, and Naruto knew she'd never afford one unless she made jonin, and even then it wasn't likely.

Throwing on her orange windbreaker for one last time, Naruto walked out the door, and took to the roof tops.

Landing in front of the academy, Naruto walked into her class for one last time, taking a seat next to Shikamaru. He was one of the few classmates she could call a friend, and she was certain he knew she was faking being the class dunce. "So, finally done playing the idiot?"

"For your information, Shikamaru, I wasn't playing anything, it was _hard work_ to pretend you are idiot, something I'm sure you are wholly unfamiliar with." Shikamaru snorted slightly, seeing through the mask had been hard, as he hadn't expected a mask. However, when he did, he found the blonde intriguing, and then one day they were friends. "I am familiar with hard work, I just run in the other direction when I see it coming. Also, congrats on passing, I know you worked hard for it."

"I cheated, actually." At this, Shikamaru sat up straight, it wasn't unexpected for ninja to cheat, his father did it all the time when they were playing shogi, but he hadn't thought that Naruto would do so. More importantly he wanted to know, "how?"

"Different bunshin, faked the hand seals, subvocalized part of the name." Shikamaru gave a low whistle of appreciation, it was quite an impressive feat in its own right. "Well, I say it wasn't cheating, they asked for three clones, not any specific clones. It's a pass in my book, Rookie of the Year…"

"Geh. Blargh! Don't call me with that disgusting title, broody can have it. Oh, and Hokage-jiji finally told me of my tenant, so now you can officially know too." Naruto watched as the lazy boy nodded off into dreamland, but before she could do the same, she was interrupted, by Kiba slamming down his paw on the desk in front of her. "You, me, outside."

"Aw, come on… I was just about to nap. Can it wait?" She knew it couldn't, Kiba hadn't per say seen through her act, he just had the instincts to tell it was an act, and as such he needed an alpha spar against her, to set the pecking order, even if it was in private. "No, I let you stall long enough, and I am just about this close to losing it. Also, drop the jacket, it obstructs the view."

"Perv! Horn dog!" Kiba nodded with a self-satisfied smirk. "And proud of it! Now, please…"

"Fine, it's disturbing when you use the Puppy Dog Eyes no Jutsu." Naruto smirked as she took the jacket off, Kiba had been hounding her for a fight, but as long as she played the clown he wouldn't force the issue, now that she wasn't. Well, Kiba probably knew that he was going to lose, badly. The dog boy gave an appreciative whistle. "Did you raid the ANBU armory?"

"If I said 'yes' would you believe me?" The Inuzuka wasn't actually sure, his usually good instincts couldn't tell if Naruto was joking or not. It was terrifying though, to think that it was possible that the girl had raided one of the most secure locations in the village for a new wardrobe. Naruto, not knowing or caring about Kiba's little panic attack, just dragged the boy off to one of the sparing halls in the academy, they only had fifteen minutes until Iruka showed, and she didn't want to be late on her last day.

"Taijutsu only, wouldn't want you to lose anything you are really attached to…" Kiba huffed at her joke but still nodded. It wasn't like it mattered, his instincts told well enough that the blonde was out of his league, about the level of his sister, and that was just terrifying. "Should Akamaru start us off?"

"Sure." They both took up a stance, and the puppy got ready to start the fight. Three tense seconds passed, and then the there was a bark, indicating the start of the fight. Kiba rushed in, channeling chakra to his hands to grow claws, and bending forward to move more like a dog. Naruto let the first swipe glide past her face, bending backwards, then smacking the arm to add more rotation, a week of sparing with her jiji was paying off.

With his back to his opponent, Kiba was defenseless against Naruto's follow-up attack, a kick to his back that sent him flying into the wall. Akamaru let out another bark to indicate the end of the match. "Damn, that fucking hurt! It felt like when mom kicks me during spars."

"Sorry, you know I've always been strong, and I'm not used to modulating my strength yet." Kiba huffed from his place on the floor, his, everything, hurting. "Yeah… well, work on that. Now be a good winner and carry me back."

"Sure." Grabbing the boy, Naruto slung him over her shoulder like a sack of rice and walked back towards the class. "I really hope we end up on the same team, I'm man enough to admit that I'd feel safe with you around. Even if you stink of fox."

"Yeah, and I'm woman enough to admit that I feel creeped out with you staring at my butt. You also stink of wet dog." Naruto dropped her friend in an open seat, the class still only half full, before sitting back down next to Shikamaru, laughing. "Done with the pissing contest?"

"Yes, dog boy is drenched." For a brief moment Naruto could swear that Shikamaru was blushing, but he returned his head to the desk before she could be certain. It really was one of her problems, she didn't have any female friends, besides Ayame, and the older girl didn't have that much time for her, only giving her a few tips and telling her about the biggest things girls should be aware off.

Naruto was woken from her nap at the sound of approaching thunder, sitting up she looked past Shikamaru to glimpse at the sky, but it was clear, and the rumbling was coming from the hallway, not outside. With a sigh, she watched as the leaders of the Sasuke fan club, entered the classroom. "Take that Ino-pig, I win!"

The sound of Sasuke fan number one's voice echoed through the classroom. The idiocy of the two girls made Naruto wish she had been born a boy, it was demeaning that those two girls, particularly the pink haired one, were part of her gender. Sakura was really bad, at least Ino had a life outside of worshipping the broody emo. "No way Forehead! My toe was at least a quarter inch ahead of yours!"

"In your dreams Ino-pig." Naruto thumped her head back onto the desk as the two girls continued to argue while storming towards the seat next to Sasuke. In the background she could hear Kiba and Akamaru whine over the volume level that was put out, and she too joined in. "Shikamaru, what are the chances that I don't end up on a team with them?"

"Low. I do believe I get the better one, you'll probably get pinky and brooder." Naruto let out another whine at Shikamaru's confirmation, it really wasn't fair, why couldn't she have Chouji and Shikamaru, let the other blonde hang out with pinky and broody. Maybe no one would notice if they swapped places, they'd both want to… She dropped the idea, knowing full well that it would never work, and went back to napping.

"…now for team seven." Naruto blinked awake, and looked around the classroom, she must have slept a while since it was nearing lunch, and Iruka was talking. "Uzumaki Naruto," now she was fully awake, "Haruno Sakura," she groaned, "and Uchiha Sasuke."

"TRUE LOVE CONQUERS ALL! TAKE THAT INO-PIG!" Naruto just groaned louder, wincing at the volume pinky produced, she really didn't have the energy for that shit. She could feel that she was nearing the breaking point, soon she would snap at her teammates, and it wouldn't be pretty. In the background Iruka continued, but she didn't bother paying attention, Shikamaru had already deduced the teams, and would tell her if they were completely off.

"Come on you two, lunch break." Chouji stood behind them, it was nice that he included her, but she had to give one last try to her teammates. "Just a second, I'll try and invite my team for lunch…"

Walking over to her two teammates, Naruto wondered what she should say, she liked neither of them. "So, Sakura-san, Sasuke-san, want to have lunch, since we're a team and all?"

"No. Just stay out of my way, loser." In her heart she knew that she shouldn't have expected anything, but it still stung to be rejected, even if she didn't like his broody ass. "Shut up Naruto-baka. See now Sasuke-kun is gone, this is your fault!"

Sakura took a swing at her, and Naruto just stepped out of the way letting the girl topple over, and walked back to Shikamaru and Chouji. "I tried, now let's have lunch."

"I am sorry about Forehead, Naruto. That isn't how teams are supposed to work." Ino looked apologetic, and Naruto was rather surprised, she didn't mind Ino, the girl had never said or done anything mean towards her, at least not with any malicious intent. "It isn't your fault Ino, I'll stick it out until the chunin exams, then I'm off the team, or if I'm lucky I might find a jonin in need of an apprentice."

"Still, I get why Sasuke is an ass, he should get therapy, but at least he has an excuse, as thin as it is after all these years, but Sakura really shouldn't act like that. She should know better." Naruto smiled at the words from her fellow blonde, she had been very jealous of Ino and Sakura's friendship, they had been very close, and then one day they broke up. "Do you really like Sasuke? I mean, yes I get that he is attractive, but do you really like him, as in kissing and marriage?"

Ino gave a long sigh. "You know, you're the first one to ever ask me that Naruto, no one asked, ever. No, I don't, I want to help him, fix him, but not marry him. More importantly, Sakura needed a rival, someone she could fight against, overcome, to boost her ego, so I became vapid fangirl number two… because that would help both of them."

Naruto, Shikamaru and Chouji, all sat in stunned silence, they had not seen this coming. "Well, she won, didn't she, she is on Sasuke's team. Now I need a new goal, Sakura doesn't need my competition anymore, and Sasuke hasn't improved one bit even though I tried getting him some human interaction, even forcefully."

"What about…" Naruto paused, she wasn't sure how to deal with a depressed friend, but Ino would need a goal to strive for, something that was her own. "…a goal that is for you, become a jonin, at record speed, I'll train with you, if you need a training partner."

"That isn't bad, Yamanaka Ino-jonin… kick ass kunoichi of the leaf! The Femme Fatale of Flowers!" Naruto sighed in relief at seeing her fellow blonde all fired up, she enjoyed her enthusiasm. While Ino was sprouting nonsense nicknames, she turned to Chouji, to whisper. " _Hey Chouji, I need you to do me a favor, help Shikamaru get moving, he can too easily start slacking off, and I fear he might die before getting a proper wake-up call._ "

" _Sure Naruto, Ino and I will light a fire under his ass, he's my friend too, and I don't want that either…_ " Chouji's reply was a great relief to Naruto, she knew that the chubby boy was the only one capable of getting the lazy ass in gear, securing his help would be beneficial. For the rest of lunch, she just enjoyed the friendly atmosphere, as Ino tried to bicker with Shikamaru, and the lazy boy tried to deflect the arguments. _'This is what a team is supposed to be like.'_ The thought made her sad, Naruto knew that her own team would never have such close bonds.

* * *

Three hours, Naruto wasn't exactly the most patient person in the world, but she could wait for a while before exploding. Even then, three hours was far more than she liked. Still, she had her book on intermediary fuinjutsu to spend time with, and it helped. On the remote chance that their teacher was on actual business, maybe an emergency mission, she didn't booby-trap the hell out of the door, but then the Hokage would have sent a messenger if that was the case.

Just as she was contemplating whether boil or lava release would be more painful, the door slid open to reveal a head with a mop of gravity defying gray hair, slovenly face covered by a mask, with the forehead protector slanted to cover the left eye. "My first impression of you guys… I hate you. Meet me on the roof."

As the head disappeared, Naruto sighed, sitting in the back of classroom, she just did a quick shunshin to the rooftop arriving shortly after the teacher. Her teacher did a slow look over her outfit, clearly surprised, and raised an eyebrow. "Did you raid the ANBU armory?"

Naruto snorted. "Yes."

"How's owl?" Naruto shrugged, the quartermaster had been less than pleased at finding her stealing all their shrimp sized uniforms. "Getting old, he only scolded me, and gave a requisition form to fill out."

"The orange?" While Naruto didn't know who her teacher was, she could tell the man had spent time with the shadow ops, it was obvious when you knew what to look for. "Stain dye, quite permanent."

"Looks good, like a little tiger cub." Naruto smiled, she liked the comparison. "Thanks!"

A few minutes of silence passed and the remaining two members of her team arrived, both looking annoyed at seeing her there, ahead of them. Before either of the late arrivals could say anything their teacher took charge. "Now that we are all here, why don't you take a seat, and introduce yourself."

Her bullshit sense was about to go off, and Naruto quickly stepped up to prevent her teammate from saying something utterly stupid. "Okay. My name is Uzumaki Naruto, I like my friends, my jiji, and ramen. I dislike idiocy, bigotry, and particularly willful ignorance. My hobby, well I stopped doing it, but it was deception. My dream for the future, to make a name for myself, _and maybe start a family…_ "

The last part was barely a whisper, and neither of her teammates heard her. "That was a very nice introduction Tiger-chan, now why don't you go Pinky-chan."

"Um, my name is Haruno Sakura, and I like… I mean the one I like…" The girl looked to the side where the brooding emo sat, blushing. "My hobbies are…" Again Sakura looked towards Sasuke, stifling a giggle. "My dream for the future…" She looked at the very uninterested boy and let a loud squeal of delight.

"And you dislikes?" Their teacher asked, and even Naruto could detect the hidden exasperation in the voice. "Ino-pig!"

"Now you, Broody-kun." The nickname garnered their teacher a glare from Sakura, which almost made Naruto laugh, but she kept it in to let the brooder speak. "My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I don't like much and dislike most, my hobby is training… I don't have a dream, but rather an ambition, because I will make it come true, to kill a certain man… and restore my clan."

Naruto wasn't sure how to feel about it, to her Itachi was a hero, the Uchiha clan had been some of her more vocal dissenters in the village, and their ninja often leading the physical attacks on her when drunk. This was why she felt happy looting their compound, they had made life hell for her, they owed her restitution. The civilians would talk about her behind her back or kick her out of stores, most ninja ignored her, either deliberately or not, but the Uchiha was worse, they attacked her directly.

 _'Heh, they were traitors anyway, good riddance.'_ She hadn't known explicitly about the coup, but leading up to the extermination they had been following her closely, putting her on edge. Hokage-jiji had confirmed that the clan had been planning coup, she had pieced enough together to make an educated guess anyway, and the confirmation just meant she was now under oath to not spread the information.

"…ame is Hatake Kakashi. I have few likes and dislikes. Dreams for the future, hmm… I have lots of hobbies. Now, tomorrow we will begin duties as Team 7, and the first thing is…" Naruto realized she hadn't been paying full attention to the teacher, though she had at least caught his name, Hatake Kakashi. It was in a few of the discarded bingo books she had salvaged from the Intelligence Departments dumpster, Sharingan no Kakashi, Copycat Kakashi, and The Man Who Has Copied a Thousand Jutsus. He was certainly impressive on paper, and with an implanted sharingan, to boot, an A-rank ninja.

"…oh you're going to lose your shit when you hear this…" As far as jonin go, he was one of the best the hidden leaf had to offer, though honestly, Naruto could easily name five others she'd feel more comfortable with, and two of those worked in T&I, as heads of the department.

"…sixty-six percent failure rate…" Naruto would have loved to have 'biki as a teacher, the man was tough as nails, and took no shit. Then there was his beautiful second, she was just crazy hot, and would likely be just as good a teacher.

"…training ground three, tomorrow at six in the morning for your final test." With that their teacher vanished in a puff of smoke and Naruto yawned.

"Hey guys…" Sasuke was already at the stairwell before Naruto could even finish the sentence, and Sakura was close behind him, not paying attention to anything else. "This is going to suck, so badly."

NONON

 _'It's official, this sucks, big hairy balls.'_ It was nearing ten and their teacher had yet to show. Naruto had decided to show up in person, and as such she had missed out on four hours of training time, four hours of her life she would never have back, honestly she wanted to find the T&I jonin kunoichi, and beg her for an apprenticeship. She'd even buy her all the dirty magazines and all the dango in the world.

At five to eleven their teacher deigned to show up, and was instantly met with a loud shout from pinky, much to Naruto's pain. She'd go deaf on this team. "…well you see, a black cat crossed my path and I had to take the long way around." Or possibly insane.

"LIAR!" The loud and pink one again lost control of the volume, and Naruto sighed. Deaf and insane, she really hated this team. "Now your objective for today is to acquire these bells,"

"But sensei, there are only two bells and three of us." Naruto just couldn't be bothered to stop the girl from saying stupid shit anymore, if Sakura wanted a gold star in stating the obvious, then she wouldn't stand in the way, as long as it didn't get her killed. "Yes, I was getting to that, the ones without a bell will be tied to that tree stump and watch as I eat lunch in front of them."

There were two growling stomachs, and Naruto sighed, again. She had offered them ration bars when she arrived, but they didn't want them. Ration bars were better than no breakfast, even if they tasted like soggy cardboard. "Also, those without a bell will be sent back to the academy for another year."

Naruto sighed, for what felt like the hundredth time that day, the two morons on her team wouldn't understand the test even if they were smacked in the head with the answer. The worst part, she realized, Kakashi wasn't allowed to fail them, which had been her one saving thought. Her ticket out of this shitty team, she had been hoping and praying that it would work. "…ready… Start!"

Moron one and two both leapt to the tree line, effectively destroying any chance of teamwork and coordination, and Naruto sighed. She sighed again as she realized that she would be sighing a lot these days. Then she followed their example and leapt into the trees, at least she watch her teammates suffer. It was the only joy she would have for the foreseeable future.

* * *

Kakashi was not a happy man, no he never was, he hadn't been happy since he was five and came home to find his dad had committed seppuku. It didn't help that Obito died saving his life, or that Rin sacrificed herself by jumping onto to his chidori. It most certainly didn't help that his teacher, and older brother figure died to seal away the Nine-Tailed Fox. No, Kakashi was not a happy man, he hadn't been in over two decades.

Somehow he had thought that this team would be like his own. Recreate some of that lost joy, but Sasuke was nothing like himself, he had been anti-social and by-the-book, but not hateful. Sakura was nothing like Rin, certainly his lost teammate had been a fangirl, but she could turn it off on a dime, the pink haired one couldn't. Then there was Naruto. Which was just awful. Had she been the same as she had portrayed in the academy, he might have felt that the team could be salvaged, but no, it turned out that the happy little girl he thought he knew had been a lie. A deep cover to hide she was approaching tokujo levels.

'Absolutely nothing like Obito.'

He left a shadow clone in the clearing, and shunshined to the Hokage's office, he needed a proper ringer, an actual chunin to take Naruto's spot, while she was apprenticed to someone else, she could join in for the chunin exams, but he could tell that the team would fall apart if she stayed. Sasuke would try something, and eventually he would do something stupid and Naruto would be forced to maim or kill him.

"Hokage-sama… Shimura-sama." Kakashi had almost overlooked the other man, which would be a fatal mistake, always. He didn't miss the glint in the mummy-man's eye, or that Danzo held out his hand to the hokage, and was handed fifty ryo. "What can I do for you, Kakashi-kun?"

"It is about the team, it's pointless to even try, they will never work together, Naruto rightfully doesn't trust her teammates, Sasuke hates everything, and Sakura couldn't even fight of a geriatric bandit, no offence Shimura-sama." The two elderly men looked at Kakashi, with something he would almost describe as mirth in their eyes. Another fifty ryo shifted hands. "And what, pray tell, should we do about it?"

"Naruto should be apprenticed to a jonin, and I will need a ringer to replace her. She can rejoin for chunin exams and C-rank missions, but she wouldn't play down her abilities, the whole tower is too unstable for her there." Kakashi sighed, it had pained him to admit this, and he really wanted Naruto as his apprentice, but he was enough of a realist to know that that had less chance than a snowball in hell. Fifty ryo shifted from Danzo to the Hokage.

"I am proud of you, Kakashi-kun, not many would admit to being out of their depth, and would try to force it. It just so happens that Danzo-kun…" A shiver went down Kakashi's spine at the honorific. "…and I were talking about Team 7. He already has a ringer lined up for you, as he expected this to happen, somehow…"

"Well, Hiruzen-kun…" Another shiver went down Kakashi's spine, it was terrifying to hear such powerful men mentioned as if they were academy boys. "…I already know Naruto-chan has informed you how she acquired her study materials, what she doesn't know is that I seeded some of the dumpsters, especially my own. I had my agents keep watch for others, the materials were meant solely for her after all."

"You did say you wanted to teach her, and even when I said no, you still got your way." Danzo just smirked, and Kakashi was left feeling a distinct sense of dread. Danzo had helped form Naruto, now that was a scary thought. "Nothing untoward was done, had you given me permission to train her, it would have been the same education, and she would have had a home as well, though she has formed a small attachment to me, as the kind old man that lives alone, she thinks of me as a mentor by chance. She will be great, and she will take the hat from you Hiruzen-kun, I've seen to that."

"How good is she?" Kakashi felt like a rabbit in a tiger den, but his concern for his sensei's daughter, for whom should have been his little sister, and now he just felt shit realizing he had abandoned his little sister for over a decade, but he needed to know that she could take care of herself. Interestingly it was Danzo that replied. "She could have graduated as Rookie of the year in our graduation cycle. I gave her my old textbooks and scrolls, along with teaching aids from that period."

Behind his mask, Kakashi gaped. He knew that the academy had lowered their standards over the years, Danzo and Hokage-sama had graduated in a time where standards were at the highest and the academy produced hundreds of what would now be chunins a year. "Really Danzo-kun? Your old textbooks? I know for a fact that there were a few scribbles in there you would never want to see the light of day."

" _You_ drew those penises, but then again, it was five decades ago, it isn't all that important anymore." And wasn't that just disturbing to see, Kakashi decided that he needed to move the conversation on, because the current topic was fraying what remained of his tenuous hold on sanity. "So, the ringer, and a jonin for Naruto. Who and who?"

"Sai, one of my failed agents; the desensitization caused more harm than good, completely shattering his emotional development, but he is a proven chunin and holds the rank. I think that being on a team with children might help him, rebuild, his personality." Kakashi nodded, he had been part of Danzo's little goon squad for a short time, and knew that it wasn't exactly conductive to mental health, and what it took to bring out an even half-way human being afterwards, he sent a thought to Tenzo.

"Many of our jonin have stepped foreward to take on Naruto over the years, Raido, Genma, and Iwashi, all stepped up years ago." The Hokage Guard Platoon, Kakashi noted that they probably still feel terrible for fucking up their job, they were supposed to keep the Youndaime safe. "…Also Yugao," Kakashi sighed in relief, he would feel better knowing Cat took care of his sensei's daughter. "…while Ibiki doesn't have time he volunteered Anko, she needs something to focus on besides my wayward student, and she is interested." Kakashi shuddered, Ibiki and Anko should not be allowed in the same city as children, let alone teaching them.

"Jiraiya would also be an option, but I want her to stay in the village for as long as possible. Finally Inuzuka Gaku, if you recall, has repeatedly tried to adopt Naruto, he swore brotherhood with Minato, sealing it in blood, to him Naruto is pack, even if she doesn't know it." It was sobering to Kakashi, while most of these were relatively unknown outside the Konoha jonin circle, they were all at his own level, or even better. 'And they all want to help sensei's daughter.'

"I see, any of them would do a terrific job, I will head back to my team now and end the farce, Naruto will be here shortly. Is Sai here? I'll take him along." There was a nod from Danzo, and a young pale boy with black hair stepped in front of Kakashi. "Sai, this is Hatake Kakashi, he will be your commanding officer until such a time that Team 7 is disbanded or breaks up."

"Understood Danzo-sama. How should I address you, taicho?" Kakashi sighed, he really didn't want this. Not that he had a choice in the matter. "Follow the lead of your teammates, which is Kakashi-sensei, now let's talk about how you should act around them…"

* * *

Naruto sighed, she had done so more in past hour than the rest of her life combined. Kakashi wasn't even present, she had seen the swap with a shadow clone, but she played her part in the teamwork, when moron one decided to attack, she had assisted his attack with a few thrown kunai, when he had gotten himself buried, she had tossed kunai to chase off Kakashi. Then she had sent some shadow clones to dig out moron one, while sending another to wake up moron two from a genjutsu.

"Are they so horrible that you couldn't even bother to test us yourself?" The shadow clone of their teacher was perched on a different branch in the tree, and just like herself, it was also reading a book. The clone cocked an eyebrow at her. "Mah, mah, that isn't it exactly, but what about you, why don't you give it a try?"

"What's the point, your hands are tied aren't they, you have to pass the brooding emo, and I doubt you want to be stuck with only him, so you'll have to pass me to share in the misery, and for that you'll need a team, so you'll have to pinky too." Naruto smirked. "Besides, I already did the obligatory teamwork assist. I also killed you."

The shadow clone looked to where Naruto was pointing, on the cover of the book was an explosive tag, a very low yield one, but more than enough to pop a shadow clone. The clone eye-smiled. "Nice, I actually didn't see that one coming."

There was a loud clap, and the clone was gone. Naruto leaned back and turned the page in her book, still half an hour till the time ended, then she would shunshin to the Hokage's office and put in for a transfer to the genin corps, that would be far better than this shit show.

"Gather round." The timer had just gone off, and Kakashi had arrived in a shunshin with a boy that Naruto instantly pegged as Sasuke2. Jumping from the tree she landed in the clearing and slowly walked towards her soon to be ex-teacher. Not that she hated the man, she actually enjoyed his quiet company, but there was just no way that she was staying on this idiotic team.

"Congratulation pinky-chan, broody-kun," Naruto nearly snorted at the sarcasm, but she wouldn't ruin it for Kakashi, he was a decent guy. Both Sakura and Sasuke preened under what they thought was praise. "You two failed, and spectacularly at that."

Sakura looked crestfallen, and Sasuke looked constipated. The pink haired girl recovered and glared at Naruto. "What about Naruto-baka?"

"She passed, both the hidden teamwork portion of the test, and she even managed to land an actual kill strike on me." Both Sakura and Sasuke looked at her, the brooder gave her a derisive snort, and pinky laughed. "As if Naruto-baka could ever do that, no way is he better than Sasuke."

"Wow, I almost feel bad for you Kakashi-san, leaving you with these morons." Kakashi nodded in response, and Naruto stepped back, to let him do his job. "Okay, I don't even know where to begin with that. Never mind. Yes, Sakura, Naruto did in fact see that this was a teamwork exercise, and she provided the teamwork to both of you, waking you from a mild genjutsu, and covering Sasuke as he engaged me in combat, even providing cover while he was incapacitated."

"Lastly, Naruto managed to plant an explosive tag on me without my knowledge, it wasn't a dangerous one, but it could just as easily have killed me instead of giving me a scare." Sasuke had returned to looking constipated, but he wasn't glaring at Naruto, so she took that as a victory, her win had been flashy enough for his taste. "Now I am a fair man, and as promised, Naruto congratulations you are off the team, the Hokage wants to see you ASAP."

"Thanks Kakashi-san, see around." With that Naruto left the clearing in a shunshin, she still had a shadow clone sitting there, she wanted to know what would happen next.

"What? Why is Naruto off the team, if he really got everything right?" For the first time in the past two days Naruto heard something intelligent from Sakura. Her real self was already gone, but the clone memories gave her an exquisite view of what happened. "Because, Sakura, you and Sasuke don't want her here, and she doesn't want to be here, she doesn't like either of you, and while she was willing to work with you, both of you blew her off three times, before the test even started."

"First was yesterday in the academy, she invited both of you to lunch, and you said some rather mean things to her. Second was again yesterday, after our introductions, she called out to you, but both of you ignored her. Third time was this morning, she offered you breakfast, and you weren't particularly nice in the rejection." Kakashi paused, letting it sink in. Sakura actually looked contrite, and Naruto hoped the girl would use this to improve herself.

"Today, during the test, did either of you seek her out after she helped you?" Kakashi sighed. "No you didn't, she had clones with both of you, but you completely ignored them, even when they tried suggesting teamwork."

"Now, luckily for you two losers, it is in Konoha's best interest that the 'Last Uchiha' be paraded around as a productive little ninja, so I can't fail you no matter how much I begged the Hokage for the past half hour, and I did beg, on my knees, with tears in my eye." Kakashi turned a hard glare at his two remaining students. "You two should be ashamed of yourself, treating a comrade that way, but since I can't fail this team, and Naruto would be gone the moment the test was over, no matter what, I got us a third member."

"This is Sai, he is here to fill out the squad, he isn't here to teach you, he isn't here to hold your hand, he is a chunin, and will work with you, as a professional. This is your absolutely last chance, if either of you fuck up, then you won't be going to the academy, but rather be dropped from the force." The young boy that Naruto had previously named Sasuke2 stepped forward. "My name is Sai, I like painting."

"Be at the red bridge leading to the training ground tomorrow morning at eight." With his final words said, Kakashi shunshined away, and Naruto watched as Sasuke stormed off in huff. Sakura was about to follow him, when she turned to Sai. "A pleasure to meet you, Sai-san, I hope we can get along."

"You as well, Sakura-san." With that, the Pink haired girl left the clearing, and Naruto joined Sai the moment she was out of sight. "I am sorry that my absence from the team means that you have to put up with it, Sai-san."

"Do not worry Naruto-san, I do not blame you for this mess." With a final nod to Sai, the clone dispelled itself, sending all the memories back to the original Naruto.


End file.
